Musharraf releases detainees

Pakistan's president defends actions

The Associated Press

Published Saturday, November 17, 2007

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- President Pervez Musharraf said Friday that he had released hundreds of Pakistanis who had been detained under emergency rule, including former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, but he insisted that the threat from "suicide bombers and terrorists" has made the crackdown necessary.

Facing pressure to end the emergency measures he imposed two weeks ago, Musharraf said in an interview that he would tell U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte in upcoming meetings that "realities on the ground" in Pakistan prompted him to suspend civil liberties, place restrictions on the news media and arrest political opponents.

Among those opponents was Bhutto, who was barricaded in a house in Lahore on Tuesday just hours before a planned procession through the Punjab, the heartland of political power in Pakistan. Her detention was lifted Friday, as was that of Asma Jahangir, the high-profile leader of the country's Human Rights Commission. Bhutto has estimated that perhaps 7,000 people from her party alone have been arrested in recent days.

Musharraf, in the interview, dismissed Bhutto as "too confrontational." He also ruled out any further discussions over a U.S.-backed power-sharing agreement with her, saying that he was a "fighter" and would not take her challenge to him "lying down."

The president said that he had restored transmission of several private television channels that had been blocked, although dozens of others remain off the air because employees have refused to sign Musharraf's new code of conduct for the media. The code threatens journalists with jail time if their coverage "ridicules" the president or other government officials.

"Yes, I have let people out and let some stations back on. But anyone who breaks the law of the land will be back in jail or restricted," Musharraf warned in the interview at the presidential residence.

"We don't want anyone in agitation mode, and I will tell Negroponte and the U.S. that Pakistan comes first, and there are certain realities on the ground extremism and terrorism that made me decide to go with emergency law."

Negroponte landed in Islamabad on Friday afternoon carrying what diplomats have said and what many Pakistanis hope is a stern message from the Bush administration. U.S. officials have said they want Musharraf to lift the emergency laws, release detainees and follow through on his promise to step down as head of the army.

Some political analysts said Musharraf's actions Friday, including the release of Bhutto, were an attempt to placate Negroponte while holding firm on emergency rule.

"I don't know whether Musharraf is throwing the U.S. a bone or what. But what's far more important for him in the long run is that he listens to Pakistani society and lifts the emergency and restores the judiciary," said Shireen Mazari, director of the Institute for Strategic Studies in Islamabad. "The U.S. needs to stop engineering politics in Pakistan, because what is going on here is not acceptable, and it's getting worse."

Parliamentary elections scheduled for Jan. 9 might be held with emergency restrictions on the news media and public gatherings still in place. Musharraf's critics say that would make a legitimate election impossible. The Pakistani leader disagreed vehemently, saying that the emergency rules were needed to ensure the "peaceful conduct of elections."

"If under the guise of emergency we put political leaders in jail, then yes, we are hampering elections. But that's not what is happening. We need emergency law for peaceful conduct of elections, so there won't be any violence and suicide bombings," he said.

Along with the restrictions on Bhutto's activity, other political opponents, including popular cricket star-turned-politician Imran Khan, have been jailed. Musharraf said Khan was an "agitator and trying to disturb the peace," but he added that he was considering Khan's release from jail.

Wearing traditional dress rather than his military uniform, Musharraf said his only regret has been his loss of public support and failure to win the understanding of both Pakistani and foreign news media, whom he said should join him in his fight against terrorists.

"Did I do the right thing? Yes. If I was charming and a good leader in the past, what went wrong? It wasn't that I changed. People say I am a dictator. If I am a dictator, I don't know what kind of dictator I am. I am the strongest believer in democracy. I brought democracy to Pakistan and I still believe in it. Why is the media on the side of the terrorists?"

Asked when emergency rule would end, Musharraf said he was "thinking about it. I don't know."

He said his intent was only to save Pakistanis from suicide attacks like the one that killed an estimated 145 people last month in Karachi, which took place during a celebration marking Bhutto's return from eight years in exile.

Musharraf has been a key U.S. ally on counterterrorism, and the Bush administration has made clear it does not want to disrupt aid to Pakistan. But the administration also has been critical of Musharraf's handling of the recent political crisis, pushing him to move forward with elections and reverse the emergency decree.

Meanwhile, militant activity in Pakistan's northwest has increased recently. In the Swat Valley, in the North-West Frontier Province, fighters loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric have taken control of several towns. Critics say Musharraf is too distracted by his political crisis an allegation he said was "unfair and untrue."

"We are fighting a vicious enemy," he said, denying suggestions that the military is losing the fight. "Sometimes there will be mistakes."

Diplomats and analysts say that the United States has grown increasingly bewildered with Musharraf.

"I think people in Washington are starting to understand that there is no natural event that will subside the turmoil now. You can't have real elections with everyone locked up every now and then," said Babar Sattar, a lawyer and columnist with the News, an English-language newspaper in Pakistan. "Benazir can't back down from her words, or she will lose creditability. And Musharraf is taking it all as a personal challenge. It will be extremely hard for him to just give up power."